RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The Manhattan College women's basketball team made John Olenowski's 100th game as head coach a winning one, as the Jaspers (1-1) picked up their first victory of the 2012-13 season, 68-63 over VCU (0-2) at Draddy Gymnasium on Wednesday night. Olenowski is now 58-42 as the Jaspers' mentor, giving him the best winning percentage in program history.
"I hope there's a lot more where that came from," Olenowski said. "When you get a win, it kind of lifts your spirits. Especially after the last game, we needed the game today. I'm just so happy for the kids that we pulled through."
Manhattan came out of the gate on fire, making 10 of its first 13 shots to open up a 21-6 lead 4:23 into the game. The lead eventually reached 18 points at 35-17 on a Karita Brown (Sterling, Va.) layup with 4:10 remaining before halftime. VCU, however, closed the half on a 12-1 clip to trim the margin to seven points, 36-29, at intermission.
The Jaspers scored the first six points of the second half to bring their lead back to 13, but the Rams countered with five straight points to make it 42-34 with 16:55 left. Manhattan immediately countered though, getting a jumper and a layup from Monica Roeder (Marlton, N.J.) to make the margin 13 points once again, 47-34.
After a Brown layup put the Jaspers in front 58-45 with five minutes to go, Robyn Parks hit a layup on the other end to start an 18-6 VCU run, and the Rams pulled within one, 64-63, on Jessica Pellechio's three-pointer with nine seconds left. Each team took a timeout, then VCU was forced to foul to stop the clock. Maggie Blair (Briarcliff, N.Y.) stepped to the line with four seconds left and calmly hit a pair, increasing the lead to three, 66-63. Carleeda Green traveled on the ensuing VCU possession, and Blair was immediately fouled again. She sank those two free throws, as well, icing the 68-63 victory.
"We did a much better job down the stretch (than we did on Saturday)," Olenowski said. "I think we kept our composure a lot better. And I think we realized that we just needed to keep playing, and make one or two plays down the stretch. As it turns out, we did that, and Maggie was great at the free throw line at the end of the game."
Roeder led the Jaspers with 14 points, while Nicole Isaacs (Fair Haven, N.J.) poured in a career-high 12 points and Toni-Ann Lawrence (Elmont, N.Y.) notched 12 points, five rebounds and three assists. Ondya Morgan (New Brunswick, N.J.) tallied seven points to go along with four steals and a career-high eight assists, and Shayna Ericksen (Hackettstown, N.J.) finished with seven points and a team-leading six rebounds. Manhattan shot 50.9 percent (27-of-53) from the field, including 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from three-point range, and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) at the charity stripe.
Parks and Pellechio combined for 51 of VCU's 63 points. Parks finished with 34 points to go along with five rebounds, while Pellechio had 17 points, six boards, three assists and four steals. Green added nine points, six assists and three steals for the Rams. VCU shot 42 percent (21-of-50) from the field, 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from downtown, and 72.2 percent (13-of-18) at the free throw line. The Rams also outrebounded the Jaspers 32-24.
After opening the season with two straight home games, the Jaspers hit the road for the first time on Tuesday night, when they visit Cornell (2-1) at 7 p.m. Manhattan has beaten Cornell in each of the past two seasons.
NOTES: The Jaspers never trailed in the contest...In the only previous meeting between the schools, VCU posted a 77-62 victory on Nov. 29, 1986...It was also Lawrence's 100th game in a Manhattan uniform...Isaacs tallied her 12 points in just 11 minutes of action and went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc...Morgan's previous career-high was six assists against Monmouth on Dec. 17, 2011...Jazmine Jarvis (Henderson, Nev.) saw her first action since the 2010-11 campaign after missing all of last season with an injury...The Jaspers committed fewer than 15 turnovers for the first time since having 10 at Holy Cross in the quarterfinals of last season's Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI)...Manhattan opened the season with consecutive home games for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign.